School curriculum is very important, but so is student involvement. Many students these days are involved in their schools because they play sports or are in other extracurricular activities. There are also many students who lack involvement in their school, which poses my question - why isn't every student involved?

As everyone is different, getting involved may not be so easy for some. For example, there was a man who loved to skateboard as a child, and one day his son asked him if they could go to the skate park, and he happily accepted.When the man and son got to the skate park, the son pulled out his scooter and the man pulled out his skateboard. Before the man started, he looked around and saw a bunch of little kids around his son's age skateboarding with skill and ease. He then thought to himself that joining in had been a stupid idea and he decided to put the skateboard back in the car.

You see, many students feel the same way in their school’s environment. They feel like they aren’t good enough to play a sport or be part of an extracurricular activity, simply because they see others exceeding more than them. However, this is flawed because if one never tries, one can never get better. Playing sports or being a part of an extracurricular activity gives you the opportunity to improve, and gaining those skills is very beneficial when you grow up and get a career or start your own business.

Be Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

It’s not easy being comfortable with the uncomfortable, but it is a necessity. Staying in your comfort zone makes you lethargic and idle because you never want to try new things. Behaving in this remiss way is not a good thing because your lethargicness can stay with you for a while if you don’t make the change to be Uncomfortable. Others’ opinions shouldn’t matter, if it’s something you truly want to do, then go out and do it! Otherwise, you will lose your chance and won’t forgive yourself in the future.

Practice

You will never improve if you don’t practice. Though this might be cliche, take a look at Michael Jordan. After being cut from his high school basketball team during his sophomore year of high school, he then practiced tirelessly the whole year until basketball season started back up his junior year. Jordan made the team and by his senior year, he was offered a scholarship to University of North Carolina to play basketball. Now he’s considered one of the best all-time basketball players to ever live. This is the type of mindset you should strive for. To practice till you’re the best.

Follow through

It’s important to stick with what you’re doing. Giving up on something after you have already started it can form a habit of quitting. Thus, it's important to always see where a project or idea will take you, because more often than not, it will become something more than could have been expected. For example, Airbnb founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia opened their apartment up to people to make some money and that small notion ended up being a huge hit. They then created a website and started Airbnb which allowed others to do the same thing. One weekend, there was a major conference in New York and many people used Airbnb, but after the event, the site’s traffic died down. For a couple months, they were getting little to nothing, but they stuck with it and now their company is worth billions of dollars.This is a great example of the importance of dedication and perseverance.

Conclusion

Everyone is given opportunities, but not everyone takes them. My hope is that every student gets involved at their school enough to develop new skills that may help them in the future. There should be no limit as to where a student can go, like Michael Jordan getting cut from his high school team and later becoming one of the best basketball players to ever live. Go out and take advantage of the opportunities around you and watch yourself become a legend.